People often ask me the same question: what do you actually do as a Forward Deployed Engineer?
It is a fair question. The role is still uncommon, and it does not fit neatly into the usual categories of engineering jobs. It is not purely software engineering, and it is not customer support. It sits somewhere in between.
The easiest way to describe it is this: a Forward Deployed Engineer works at the edge of the product.
The edge is where a company's technology meets the messy reality of the customers who use it. Products are built in controlled environments. Customers operate in complicated systems with their own tools, workflows, and constraints. A Forward Deployed Engineer exists to make sure the two actually work together.
As more companies build AI products and complex software platforms, this role is becoming increasingly important.
My main responsibility is working with our top customers to make sure their technical needs are fulfilled.
In practice, this means building integrations. Some integrations are common across many customers, while others are custom systems built for a specific organization. The goal is always the same: help our customers put their digital intelligence in front of their audience in the most effective and reliable way.
This could mean connecting our platform to a company's website, internal tools, data systems, or applications. Often the work involves translating customer needs into technical implementations that fit within our product.
In many cases, the Forward Deployed Engineer becomes the bridge between what the product can do and what the customer actually needs.
The role does not stop with customers.
Forward Deployed Engineers also help the operations team operate more efficiently. This can include building internal tools, writing scripts, setting up automations, or improving workflows that reduce manual work.
Because of this position, the FDE often sits at the intersection of several groups inside the company:
In some cases, I also work directly with the executive team. Since Forward Deployed Engineers are close to both the technology and the customer, they often have a clear view of where the product succeeds and where it needs to improve.
As artificial intelligence becomes more powerful, the difficulty is no longer just building the technology. The real challenge is making it work inside other companies' environments.
When a product is deeply integrated into a customer's systems, it becomes far more valuable. It is no longer just a tool someone logs into. It becomes part of the company's workflow.
Forward Deployed Engineers help create these deep integrations.
They connect the product to data systems, internal tools, and user interfaces that employees already rely on. Over time, the product becomes woven into how companies and clients operate.
These integrations create something valuable for the company providing the software: a moat.
When software is deeply embedded in a customer's infrastructure, replacing it becomes difficult. Removing the product would require rebuilding workflows and integrations that have grown around it.
Companies like Palantir are known for this approach. Their engineers work closely with customers to integrate their software deeply into operations.
We see a similar pattern emerging in many modern AI companies, including Delphi, where the goal is to place digital intelligence directly inside the environments where people already interact.
Forward Deployed Engineers are often the people who make all of this possible and as time marches forward, this role will only get more and more important.